electricity shortage essay

Causes, Effects, and Solutions to the Growing Problem of Global Energy Crisis

The energy crisis stems from the increasing global demand for limited natural resources , essential for powering our industrial society. As the demand for these resources increases, they edge closer to depletion, presenting a pressing concern.

Sure, these resources occur naturally, but replenishing them can take hundreds or thousands of years, making them scarce commodities.

Governments and concerned individuals are working together to prioritize the use of renewable resources and lessen the irresponsible use of natural supplies through increased conservation .

The energy crisis is a broad and complex topic. But most people don’t feel connected to its reality until they experience increased fuel prices and longer lines at the pump.

According to Wikipedia ,

“An energy crisis is any significant bottleneck in the supply of energy resources to an economy. In literature, it often refers to one of the energy sources used at a certain time and place, in particular those that supply national electricity grids or those used as fuel in Industrial development and population growth have led to a surge in the global demand for energy in recent years.””

How Real is the Energy Crisis?

During election years, there is a renewed debate on how “real” the energy crisis is in the world.

One side will always say it is based on faulty science and politics; the other will say that the opposite side is basing its findings on junk science and political interests.

The best way to sum up the reality of the energy crisis is that you cannot have growing demands on limited resources without eventually running out of the resource.

That is just common sense.

Essentially, whether or not the energy crisis is real depends on our perception of responsibility for the future.

If we disregard everything that happens after our time on Earth is up, then the energy crisis may not seem real. But if we can view the situation from far and wide perspective with interest in future generations, then it’s easy to see the reality of the energy crisis.

Various Causes of the Global Energy Crisis

It would be easy to point the finger at one practice or industry and lay the blame for the entire energy crisis at their door, but that would be a very naive and unrealistic interpretation of the cause of the crisis.

1. Overconsumption

The energy crisis results from many different strains on our natural resources , not just one. There is a strain on fossil fuels such as oil , gas , and coal due to overconsumption – which then, in turn, can put a strain on our water and oxygen resources by causing pollution .

2. Overpopulation

Another cause of the crisis has been a steady increase in the world’s population and its demands for fuel and products. No matter what type of food or products you choose to use – from fair trade and organic to those made from petroleum products in a sweatshop – not one is made or transported without a significant drain on our energy resources.

3. Poor Infrastructure

The aging infrastructure of power-generating equipment is yet another reason for energy shortage. Most of the energy-producing firms keep on using outdated equipment that restricts the production of energy. It is the responsibility of utilities to keep upgrading the infrastructure and set a high-performance standard.

4. Unexplored Renewable Energy Options

In many countries, renewable energy sources remain largely untapped, while non-renewable sources like coal dominate the energy production landscape. As a result, coal remains the preferred choice for meeting energy demands.

Unless we give renewable energy serious thought, the energy crisis cannot be solved . That’s because renewable energy sources can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and also helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

5. Delay in Commissioning of Power Plants

In a few countries, there is a significant delay in the commissioning of new power plants that can fill the gap between demand and supply of energy. The result is that old plants come under immense stress to meet the daily demand for power. When supply doesn’t match demand, it results in load-shedding and breakdown.

6. Wastage of Energy

In most parts of the world, people do not realize the importance of conserving energy . It is only limited to books, the internet, newspaper ads, lip service, and seminars. Unless we begin implementing what we already know about energy conservation in our everyday life, the energy crisis can only worsen with time.

Simple things like switching off fans and lights when not in use, using maximum daylight, walking instead of driving for short distances, using CFL instead of traditional bulbs, and proper insulation to minimize energy leakage can go a long way in saving energy. Read here about 151 ways of saving energy .

7. Poor Distribution System

Frequent tripping and breakdown are a result of a poor distribution system.

8. Major Accidents and Natural Calamities

Major accidents like pipeline bursts and natural calamities like the eruption of volcanoes, floods, and earthquakes can also cause interruptions to energy supplies.

9. Wars and Attacks

Wars between countries can also hamper the supply of energy, especially if it happens in Middle East countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, UAE, or Qatar.

That’s what happened during the 1990 Gulf War when the price of oil reached its peak, causing global shortages and creating major problems for energy consumers.

10. Miscellaneous Factors

Tax hikes, strikes, military coups, political events, severe hot summers or cold winters can cause a sudden increase in energy demand and choke supply. A strike by trade unions in an oil-producing firm can cause an energy crisis.

Various Effects of the Global Energy Crisis

The growth of human civilization has led to increased consumption of traditional energy sources, particularly fossil fuels. This extensive usage inevitably leads to several significant effects related to the global energy crisis, including:

1. Environmental Effects

Energy is produced by burning non-renewable fossil fuels. This does not only affect the global resources of fossil fuels but also the environment.

You see, burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. These gases create a blanket on the earth’s surface, preventing the release of the short rays of the sun by night.

Thus, we can safely argue that the energy crisis facilitates making the earth a warmer place by promoting global warming.

2. Increasing Prices of the Fuel Resources

The escalating use of fossil fuels drives an increase in their cost, given their limited availability. As consumption continues, the quantity of these precious resources declines, heightening concerns about their future scarcity.

As each day passes, fossil fuel demand increases while availability decreases. This leads to a gradual and persistent increase in price, creating a huge economic disturbance across the globe.

3. Political Disturbances

The fact that the energy crisis creates some socio-economic disturbances also tells us that it also creates a lot of political disturbances across the globe. In fact, the quest for fossil fuels is one of the major causes of the same.

Besides, with the failure of the energy markets, we see a crash in not only the global economy but also in the energy available. All these are enough to cause socio-political disturbances.

4. The Effect on the Tourism Industry

The tourism industry is largely dependent on the rise and fall of fuel prices. The tremendous rise in fuel prices from the energy crisis affects the tourism industry pretty adversely.

That’s because the increase in fuel prices also means an upsurge in the costs of tourism, leaving only a few able to afford it. This decline in the number of tourists translates to lower revenue generated through tourism industry.

Possible Solutions to the Problem of Global Energy Crisis

Many of the possible solutions are already in place today, but they have not been widely adopted.

1. Move Towards Renewable Resources

The best possible solution is to reduce the world’s dependence on non-renewable resources and to improve overall conservation efforts.

Much of the industrial age heavily relied on fossil fuels, but there are established technologies that leverage renewable energy sources, such as steam, solar , and wind .

In switching to renewable energy sources, we must understand that the primary concern lies not in depleting gas or oil reserves but in the continued use of coal , which pollutes the atmosphere and destroys other natural resources during mining. That will help us understand why the shift is necessary even with access to fossil fuels.

2. Buy Energy-Efficient Products

Replace traditional bulbs with CFLs and LEDs . They use fewer watts of electricity and last longer. If millions of people across the globe use LEDs and CFLs for residential and commercial lighting, the demand for energy can decrease, and an energy crisis can be averted.

3. Lighting Controls

The other step we can take to save the global energy crisis is switching to lighting controls. Lighting controls aren’t just interesting technologies; they’re also a great way to cut on the energy you use, consequently reducing your energy bills.

Preset lighting controls, slide lighting, touch dimmers, and integrated lighting controls are a few of the lighting controls that can help to conserve energy and reduce overall lighting costs.

4. Easier Grid Access

People who use different options to generate power should be given a way to plug into the grid and get credit for the excess amount of power they feed into it. Apart from that, subsidies on solar panels should be given to encourage more people to explore renewable options.

5. Energy Simulation

Big corporates and corporations can use energy simulation software to optimize their building units and reduce energy costs .

By utilizing such software, engineers, architects, and designers can create highly energy-efficient buildings , effectively reducing the carbon footprint of these structures.

6. Perform Energy Audit

The energy audit is a process that helps you to identify the areas where your home or office is losing energy and what steps you can take to improve energy efficiency .

When done by a professional, an energy audit can help reduce your carbon footprint, save energy and money, and relieve the current energy crisis.

7. Common Stand on Climate Change

Both developed and developing countries should adopt a common stand on climate change. They should focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions through an effective cross-border mechanism.

With current population growth and overconsumption of resources, the consequences of global warming and climate change cannot be ruled out. Both developed and developing countries must focus on halving their emissions by 2050.

What is Being Done Today?

There are many global initiatives that are working towards resolving the energy crisis. These include stricter regulations and restrictions on carbon emissions, the promotion of greener manufacturing and construction projects, the funding of research into hybrid and other sustainable technologies, and more.

Locally, the communities are becoming more informed on the importance of using resources responsibly, extending beyond just recycling .

More community gardens, parks, and farmer’s markets are springing up not only as a means of introducing more sustainable elements into people’s lives but as an essential part of educating the public about the importance of resources.

References:

World Energy Issues

EPA Position on Energy Crisis

America’s Next Energy Crisis by Forbes

Human Engineering and the Energy Crisis

About Rinkesh

A true environmentalist by heart ❤️. Founded Conserve Energy Future with the sole motto of providing helpful information related to our rapidly depleting environment. Unless you strongly believe in Elon Musk‘s idea of making Mars as another habitable planet, do remember that there really is no 'Planet B' in this whole universe.

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The world’s energy problem

The world faces two energy problems: most of our energy still produces greenhouse gas emissions, and hundreds of millions lack access to energy..

The world lacks safe, low-carbon, and cheap large-scale energy alternatives to fossil fuels. Until we scale up those alternatives the world will continue to face the two energy problems of today. The energy problem that receives most attention is the link between energy access and greenhouse gas emissions. But the world has another global energy problem that is just as big: hundreds of millions of people lack access to sufficient energy entirely, with terrible consequences to themselves and the environment.

The problem that dominates the public discussion on energy is climate change. A climate crisis endangers the natural environment around us, our wellbeing today and the wellbeing of those who come after us.

It is the production of energy that is responsible for 87% of global greenhouse gas emissions and as the chart below shows, people in the richest countries have the very highest emissions.

This chart here will guide us through the discussion of the world's energy problem. It shows the per capita CO2 emissions on the vertical axis against the average income in that country on the horizontal axis.

In countries where people have an average income between $15,000 and $20,000, per capita CO 2 emissions are close to the global average ( 4.8 tonnes CO 2 per year). In every country where people's average income is above $25,000 the average emissions per capita are higher than the global average.

The world’s CO 2 emissions have been rising quickly and reached 36.6 billion tonnes in 2018 . As long as we are emitting greenhouse gases their concentration in the atmosphere increases . To bring climate change to an end the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere needs to stabilize and to achieve this the world’s greenhouse gas emissions have to decline towards net-zero.

To bring emissions down towards net-zero will be one of the world’s biggest challenges in the years ahead. But the world’s energy problem is actually even larger than that, because the world has not one, but two energy problems.

The twin problems of global energy

The first energy problem: those that have low carbon emissions lack access to energy.

The first global energy problem relates to the left-hand side of the scatter-plot above.

People in very poor countries have very low emissions. On average, people in the US emit more carbon dioxide in 4 days than people in poor countries – such as Ethiopia, Uganda, or Malawi – emit in an entire year. 1

The reason that the emissions of the poor are low is that they lack access to modern energy and technology. The energy problem of the poorer half of the world is energy poverty . The two charts below show that large shares of people in countries with a GDP per capita of less than $25,000 do not have access to electricity and clean cooking fuels. 2

The lack of access to these technologies causes some of the worst global problems of our time.

When people lack access to modern energy sources for cooking and heating, they rely on solid fuel sources – mostly firewood, but also dung and crop waste. This comes at a massive cost to the health of people in energy poverty: indoor air pollution , which the WHO calls "the world's largest single environmental health risk." 3 For the poorest people in the world it is the largest risk factor for early death and global health research suggests that indoor air pollution is responsible for 1.6 million deaths each year, twice the death count of poor sanitation. 4

The use of wood as a source of energy also has a negative impact on the environment around us. The reliance on fuelwood is the reason why poverty is linked to deforestation. The FAO reports that on the African continent the reliance on wood as fuel is the single most important driver of forest degradation. 5 Across East, Central, and West Africa fuelwood provides more than half of the total energy. 6

Lastly, the lack of access to energy subjects people to a life in poverty. No electricity means no refrigeration of food; no washing machine or dishwasher; and no light at night. You might have seen the photos of children sitting under a street lamp at night to do their homework. 7

The first energy problem of the world is the problem of energy poverty – those that do not have sufficient access to modern energy sources suffer poor living conditions as a result.

The second energy problem: those that have access to energy produce greenhouse gas emissions that are too high

The second energy problem is the one that is more well known, and relates to the right hand-side of the scatterplot above: greenhouse gas emissions are too high.

Those that need to reduce emissions the most are the extremely rich. Diana Ivanova and Richard Wood (2020) have just shown that the richest 1% in the EU emit on average 43 tonnes of CO 2 annually – 9-times as much as the global average of 4.8 tonnes. 8

The focus on the rich, however, can give the impression that it is only the emissions of the extremely rich that are the problem. What isn’t made clear enough in the public debate is that for the world's energy supply to be sustainable the greenhouse gas emissions of the majority of the world population are currently too high. The problem is larger for the extremely rich, but it isn’t limited to them.

The Paris Agreement's goal is to keep the increase of the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and “to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C”. 9

To achieve this goal emissions have to decline to net-zero within the coming decades.

Within richer countries, where few are suffering from energy poverty, even the emissions of the very poorest people are far higher. The paper by Ivanova and Wood shows that in countries like Germany, Ireland, and Greece more than 99% of households have per capita emissions of more than 2.4 tonnes per year.

The only countries that have emissions that are close to zero are those where the majority suffers from energy poverty. 10 The countries that are closest are the very poorest countries in Africa : Malawi, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But this comes at a large cost to themselves as this chart shows. In no poor country do people have living standards that are comparable to those of people in richer countries.

And since living conditions are better where GDP per capita is higher, it is also the case that CO 2 emissions are higher where living conditions are better. Emissions are high where child mortality is the lowest , where children have good access to education, and where few of them suffer from hunger .

The reason for this is that as soon as people get access to energy from fossil fuels their emissions are too high to be sustainable over the long run (see here ).

People need access to energy for a good life. But in a world where fossil fuels are the dominant source of energy, access to modern energy means that carbon emissions are too high.

The more accurate description of the second global energy problem is therefore: the majority of the world population – all those who are not very poor – have greenhouse gas emissions that are far too high to be sustainable over the long run.

The current alternatives are energy poverty or fossil-fuels and greenhouse gases

The chart here is a version of the scatter plot above and summarizes the two global energy problems: In purple are those that live in energy poverty, in blue those whose greenhouse gas emissions are too high if we want to avoid severe climate change.

So far I have looked at the global energy problem in a static way, but the world is changing  of course.

For millennia all of our ancestors lived in the pink bubble: the reliance on wood meant they suffered from indoor air pollution; the necessity of acquiring fuelwood and agricultural land meant deforestation; and minimal technology meant that our ancestors lived in conditions of extreme poverty.

In the last two centuries more and more people have moved from the purple to the blue area in the chart. In many ways this is a very positive development. Economic growth and increased access to modern energy improved people's living conditions. In rich countries almost no one dies from indoor air pollution and living conditions are much better in many ways as we've seen above. It also meant that we made progress against the ecological downside of energy poverty: The link between poverty and the reliance on fuelwood is one of the key reasons why deforestation declines with economic growth. 11 And progress in that direction has been fast: on any average day in the last decade 315,000 people in the world got access to electricity for the first time in their life.

But while living conditions improved, greenhouse gas emissions increased.

The chart shows what this meant for greenhouse gas emissions over the last generation. The chart is a version of the scatter plot above, but it shows the change over time – from 1990 to the latest available data.

The data is now also plotted on log-log scales which has the advantage that you can see the rates of change easily. On a logarithmic axis the steepness of the line corresponds to the rate of change. What the chart shows is that low- and middle-income countries increased their emissions at very similar rates.

By default the chart shows the change of income and emission for the 14 countries that are home to more than 100 million people, but you can add other countries to the chart.

What has been true in the past two decades will be true in the future. For the poorer three-quarters of the world income growth means catching up with the good living conditions of the richer world, but unless there are cheap alternatives to fossil fuels it also means catching up with the high emissions of the richer world.

Our challenge: find large-scale energy alternatives to fossil fuels that are affordable, safe and sustainable

The task for our generation is therefore twofold: since the majority of the world still lives in poor conditions, we have to continue to make progress in our fight against energy poverty. But success in this fight will only translate into good living conditions for today’s young generation when we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the same time.

Key to making progress on both of these fronts is the source of energy and its price . Those living in energy poverty cannot afford sufficient energy and those that left the worst poverty behind rely on fossil fuels to meet their energy needs.

Once we look at it this way it becomes clear that the twin energy problems are really the two sides of one big problem. We lack large-scale energy alternatives to fossil fuels that are cheap, safe, and sustainable.

This last version of the scatter plot shows what it would mean to have such energy sources at scale. It would allow the world to leave the unsustainable current alternatives behind and make the transition to the bottom right corner of the chart: the area marked with the green rectangle where emissions are net-zero and everyone has left energy poverty behind.

Without these technologies we are trapped in a world where we have only bad alternatives: Low-income countries that fail to meet the needs of the current generation; high-income countries that compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs; and middle-income countries that fail on both counts.

Since we have not developed all the technologies that are required to make this transition possible large scale innovation is required for the world to make this transition. This is the case for most sectors that cause carbon emissions , in particular in the transport (shipping, aviation, road transport) and heating sectors, but also cement production and agriculture.

One sector where we have developed several alternatives to fossil fuels is electricity. Nuclear power and renewables emit far less carbon (and are much safer) than fossil fuels. Still, as the last chart shows, their share in global electricity production hasn't changed much: only increasing from 36% to 38% in the last three decades.

But it is possible to do better. Some countries have scaled up nuclear power and renewables and are doing much better than the global average. You can see this if you change the chart to show the data for France and Sweden – in France 92% of electricity comes from low carbon sources, in Sweden it is 99%. The consequence of countries doing better in this respect should be that they are closer to the sustainable energy world of the future. The scatter plot above shows that this is the case.

But for the global energy supply – especially outside the electricity sector – the world is still far away from a solution to the world's energy problem.

Every country is still very far away from providing clean, safe, and affordable energy at a massive scale and unless we make rapid progress in developing these technologies we will remain stuck in the two unsustainable alternatives of today: energy poverty or greenhouse gas emissions.

As can be seen from the chart, the ratio of emissions is 17.49t / 0.2t = 87.45. And 365 days/87.45=4.17 days

It is worth looking into the cutoffs for what it means – according to these international statistics – to have access to energy. The cutoffs are low.

See Raising Global Energy Ambitions: The 1,000 kWh Modern Energy Minimum and IEA (2020) – Defining energy access: 2020 methodology, IEA, Paris.

WHO (2014) – Frequently Asked Questions – Ambient and Household Air Pollution and Health . Update 2014

While it is certain that the death toll of indoor air pollution is high, there are widely differing estimates. At the higher end of the spectrum, the WHO estimates a death count of more than twice that. We discuss it in our entry on indoor air pollution .

The 2018 estimate for premature deaths due to poor sanitation is from the same analysis, the Global Burden of Disease study. See here .

FAO and UNEP. 2020. The State of the World’s Forests 2020. Forests, biodiversity and people. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca8642en

The same report also reports that an estimated 880 million people worldwide are collecting fuelwood or producing charcoal with it.

This is according to the IEA's World Energy Balances 2020. Here is a visualization of the data.

The second largest energy source across the three regions is oil and the third is gas.

The photo shows students study under the streetlights at Conakry airport in Guinea. It was taken by Rebecca Blackwell for the Associated Press.

It was published by the New York Times here .

The global average is 4.8 tonnes per capita . The richest 1% of individuals in the EU emit 43 tonnes per capita – according to Ivanova D, Wood R (2020). The unequal distribution of household carbon footprints in Europe and its link to sustainability. Global Sustainability 3, e18, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2020.12

On Our World in Data my colleague Hannah Ritchie has looked into a related question and also found that the highest emissions are concentrated among a relatively small share of the global population: High-income countries are home to only 16% of the world population, yet they are responsible for almost half (46%) of the world’s emissions.

Article 2 of the Paris Agreement states the goal in section 1a: “Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.”

It is an interesting question whether there are some subnational regions in richer countries where a larger group of people has extremely low emissions; it might possibly be the case in regions that rely on nuclear energy or renewables (likely hydro power) or where aforestation is happening rapidly.

Crespo Cuaresma, J., Danylo, O., Fritz, S. et al. Economic Development and Forest Cover: Evidence from Satellite Data. Sci Rep 7, 40678 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep40678

Bruce N, Rehfuess E, Mehta S, et al. Indoor Air Pollution. In: Jamison DT, Breman JG, Measham AR, et al., editors. Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries. 2nd edition. Washington (DC): The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank; 2006. Chapter 42. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11760/ Co-published by Oxford University Press, New York.

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Global Energy Crisis

How the energy crisis started, how global energy markets are impacting our daily life, and what governments are doing about it

• English English

What is the energy crisis?

Record prices, fuel shortages, rising poverty, slowing economies: the first energy crisis that's truly global.

Energy markets began to tighten in 2021 because of a variety of factors, including the extraordinarily rapid economic rebound following the pandemic. But the situation escalated dramatically into a full-blown global energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The price of natural gas reached record highs, and as a result so did electricity in some markets. Oil prices hit their highest level since 2008. 

Higher energy prices have contributed to painfully high inflation, pushed families into poverty, forced some factories to curtail output or even shut down, and slowed economic growth to the point that some countries are heading towards severe recession. Europe, whose gas supply is uniquely vulnerable because of its historic reliance on Russia, could face gas rationing this winter, while many emerging economies are seeing sharply higher energy import bills and fuel shortages. While today’s energy crisis shares some parallels with the oil shocks of the 1970s, there are important differences. Today’s crisis involves all fossil fuels, while the 1970s price shocks were largely limited to oil at a time when the global economy was much more dependent on oil, and less dependent on gas. The entire word economy is much more interlinked than it was 50 years ago, magnifying the impact. That’s why we can refer to this as the first truly global energy crisis.

Some gas-intensive manufacturing plants in Europe have curtailed output because they can’t afford to keep operating, while in China some have simply had their power supply cut. In emerging and developing economies, where the share of household budgets spent on energy and food is already large, higher energy bills have increased extreme poverty and set back progress towards achieving universal and affordable energy access. Even in advanced economies, rising prices have impacted vulnerable households and caused significant economic, social and political strains.

Climate policies have been blamed in some quarters for contributing to the recent run-up in energy prices, but there is no evidence. In fact, a greater supply of clean energy sources and technologies would have protected consumers and mitigated some of the upward pressure on fuel prices.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine drove European and Asian gas prices to record highs

Evolution of key regional natural gas prices, june 2021-october 2022, what is causing it, disrupted supply chains, bad weather, low investment, and then came russia's invasion of ukraine.

Energy prices have been rising since 2021 because of the rapid economic recovery, weather conditions in various parts of the world, maintenance work that had been delayed by the pandemic, and earlier decisions by oil and gas companies and exporting countries to reduce investments. Russia began withholding gas supplies to Europe in 2021, months ahead of its invasion of Ukraine. All that led to already tight supplies. Russia’s attack on Ukraine greatly exacerbated the situation . The United States and the EU imposed a series of sanctions on Russia and many European countries declared their intention to phase out Russian gas imports completely. Meanwhile, Russia has increasingly curtailed or even turned off its export pipelines. Russia is by far the world’s largest exporter of fossil fuels, and a particularly important supplier to Europe. In 2021, a quarter of all energy consumed in the EU came from Russia. As Europe sought to replace Russian gas, it bid up prices of US, Australian and Qatari ship-borne liquefied natural gas (LNG), raising prices and diverting supply away from traditional LNG customers in Asia. Because gas frequently sets the price at which electricity is sold, power prices soared as well. Both LNG producers and importers are rushing to build new infrastructure to increase how much LNG can be traded internationally, but these costly projects take years to come online. Oil prices also initially soared as international trade routes were reconfigured after the United States, many European countries and some of their Asian allies said they would no longer buy Russian oil. Some shippers have declined to carry Russian oil because of sanctions and insurance risk. Many large oil producers were unable to boost supply to meet rising demand – even with the incentive of sky-high prices – because of a lack of investment in recent years. While prices have come down from their peaks, the outlook is uncertain with new rounds of European sanctions on Russia kicking in later this year.

What is being done?

Pandemic hangovers and rising interest rates limit public responses, while some countries turn to coal.

Some governments are looking to cushion the blow for customers and businesses, either through direct assistance, or by limiting prices for consumers and then paying energy providers the difference. But with inflation in many countries well above target and budget deficits already large because of emergency spending during the Covid-19 pandemic, the scope for cushioning the impact is more limited than in early 2020. Rising inflation has triggered increases in short-term interest rates in many countries, slowing down economic growth. Europeans have rushed to increase gas imports from alternative producers such as Algeria, Norway and Azerbaijan. Several countries have resumed or expanded the use of coal for power generation, and some are extending the lives of nuclear plants slated for de-commissioning. EU members have also introduced gas storage obligations, and agreed on voluntary targets to cut gas and electricity demand by 15% this winter through efficiency measures, greater use of renewables, and support for efficiency improvements. To ensure adequate oil supplies, the IEA and its members responded with the two largest ever releases of emergency oil stocks. With two decisions – on 1 March 2022 and 1 April – the IEA coordinated the release of some 182 million barrels of emergency oil from public stocks or obligated stocks held by industry. Some IEA member countries independently released additional public stocks, resulting in a total of over 240 million barrels being released between March and November 2022.

The IEA has also published action plans to cut oil use with immediate impact, as well as plans for how Europe can reduce its reliance on Russian gas and how common citizens can reduce their energy consumption . The invasion has sparked a reappraisal of energy policies and priorities, calling into question the viability of decades of infrastructure and investment decisions, and profoundly reorientating international energy trade. Gas had been expected to play a key role in many countries as a lower-emitting "bridge" between dirtier fossil fuels and renewable energies. But today’s crisis has called into question natural gas’ reliability.

The current crisis could accelerate the rollout of cleaner, sustainable renewable energy such as wind and solar, just as the 1970s oil shocks spurred major advances in energy efficiency, as well as in nuclear, solar and wind power. The crisis has also underscored the importance of investing in robust gas and power network infrastructure to better integrate regional markets. The EU’s RePowerEU, presented in May 2022 and the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act , passed in August 2022, both contain major initiatives to develop energy efficiency and promote renewable energies. 

The global energy crisis can be a historic turning point

Energy saving tips

1. Heating: turn it down

Lower your thermostat by just 1°C to save around 7% of your heating energy and cut an average bill by EUR 50-70 a year. Always set your thermostat as low as feels comfortable, and wear warm clothes indoors. Use a programmable thermostat to set the temperature to 15°C while you sleep and 10°C when the house is unoccupied. This cuts up to 10% a year off heating bills. Try to only heat the room you’re in or the rooms you use regularly.

The same idea applies in hot weather. Turn off air-conditioning when you’re out. Set the overall temperature 1 °C warmer to cut bills by up to 10%. And only cool the room you’re in.

2. Boiler: adjust the settings

Default boiler settings are often higher than you need. Lower the hot water temperature to save 8% of your heating energy and cut EUR 100 off an average bill.  You may have to have the plumber come once if you have a complex modern combi boiler and can’t figure out the manual. Make sure you follow local recommendations or consult your boiler manual. Swap a bath for a shower to spend less energy heating water. And if you already use a shower, take a shorter one. Hot water tanks and pipes should be insulated to stop heat escaping. Clean wood- and pellet-burning heaters regularly with a wire brush to keep them working efficiently.

3. Warm air: seal it in

Close windows and doors, insulate pipes and draught-proof around windows, chimneys and other gaps to keep the warm air inside. Unless your home is very new, you will lose heat through draughty doors and windows, gaps in the floor, or up the chimney. Draught-proof these gaps with sealant or weather stripping to save up to EUR 100 a year. Install tight-fitting curtains or shades on windows to retain even more heat. Close fireplace and chimney openings (unless a fire is burning) to stop warm air escaping straight up the chimney. And if you never use your fireplace, seal the chimney to stop heat escaping.

4. Lightbulbs: swap them out

Replace old lightbulbs with new LED ones, and only keep on the lights you need. LED bulbs are more efficient than incandescent and halogen lights, they burn out less frequently, and save around EUR 10 a year per bulb. Check the energy label when buying bulbs, and aim for A (the most efficient) rather than G (the least efficient). The simplest and easiest way to save energy is to turn lights off when you leave a room.

5. Grab a bike

Walking or cycling are great alternatives to driving for short journeys, and they help save money, cut emissions and reduce congestion. If you can, leave your car at home for shorter journeys; especially if it’s a larger car. Share your ride with neighbours, friends and colleagues to save energy and money. You’ll also see big savings and health benefits if you travel by bike. Many governments also offer incentives for electric bikes.

6. Use public transport

For longer distances where walking or cycling is impractical, public transport still reduces energy use, congestion and air pollution. If you’re going on a longer trip, consider leaving your car at home and taking the train. Buy a season ticket to save money over time. Your workplace or local government might also offer incentives for travel passes. Plan your trip in advance to save on tickets and find the best route.

7. Drive smarter

Optimise your driving style to reduce fuel consumption: drive smoothly and at lower speeds on motorways, close windows at high speeds and make sure your tires are properly inflated. Try to take routes that avoid heavy traffic and turn off the engine when you’re not moving. Drive 10 km/h slower on motorways to cut your fuel bill by around EUR 60 per year. Driving steadily between 50-90 km/h can also save fuel. When driving faster than 80 km/h, it’s more efficient to use A/C, rather than opening your windows. And service your engine regularly to maintain energy efficiency.

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Analysis and forecast to 2025

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How to Avoid Gas Shortages in the European Union in 2023

A practical set of actions to close a potential supply-demand gap

Flagship report — December 2022

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Save Electricity Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on save electricity.

Electricity is an essential resource for a thriving life. It runs our daily life. Life without electricity would be impossible to imagine now. We generate electricity using coal or natural gas. However, people do not realize the natural resources to do as are limited and non-renewable. We must conserve electricity so that we can conserve these resources.

In other words, electricity serves mankind greatly. We must stop the wastage of power. The world will lose its light if there is no electricity. Moreover, careless behavior by humans must be checked. We need to realize the importance of electricity to save ourselves from the darkness.

Need for Electricity

Electricity is needed in almost every sphere of life now. We need it to lead a comfortable life full of all amenities and services. The world will become dormant without electricity. For instance, all our health and education facilities are conditioned by electricity. If there is no electricity, the surgeon won’t be able to perform his surgery. Moreover, students won’t be able to gain practical knowledge.

Likewise, motor mechanics in the garages and engineers in the factory depend on electricity. Furthermore, the passengers at the railway station and the airport can travel safely due to electricity only.

In addition, various means of transportation depend on electricity only. Trams and metros carry thousands of people every day. All this is made possible due to electricity only. Electricity boosts our modern life and helps in making it civilized.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

How to Save Electricity

Firstly, all of us must understand that even a small step will go a very long way in saving electricity. For instance, if every person at each home switches on the fan when not in use, thousands of watts of electricity can be saved.

Similarly, if we use our air conditioners, heaters, ovens, refrigerators and more properly, we can successfully save large amounts of electricity.

Furthermore, try making use of natural light more. Do not keep the lights unnecessarily in the morning and afternoons. Make do with the natural light as it is enough. We must replace all our old appliances as they consume a lot of electricity. In other words, we must strive to make our homes energy efficient.

Moreover, always remember to unplug your electrical gadgets when not in use. These devices consume at least 10% of electricity even when inactive. Thus, unplug them to save electricity.

In addition, try to cut down your TV watching time. Encourage kids to read and play outside instead. Likewise, try using laptops in place of desktops. Desktops consume more energy than a laptop. You must also switch off the fans if you using your air conditioner, thereby avoiding unnecessary wastage.

Most importantly, installing solar panels can help you excessively. They are very economical and help in saving a lot of energy. The solar panels will help in consuming lesser energy that too economically. Similarly, the industries which use megawatts of electricity must install windmills. This can help in getting cheap electricity through natural means.

{ “@context”: “https://schema.org”, “@type”: “FAQPage”, “mainEntity”: [{ “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “Why is Electricity important?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”: “Electricity powers all the facilities now. It helps a surgeon perform life-saving surgery. Similarly, it helps students in learning practical knowledge at school. Furthermore, people lead a comfortable life all thanks to electricity.”} }, { “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “How can we save electricity?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”:”One can adopt a number of ways to save electricity. Make sure to use natural light to the fullest and avoid turning on lights in the morning and afternoon. Moreover, always switch off fans and lights when not in use. Unplug your gadgets and install solar panels to get economic electricity.”} }] }

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Brace Yourself for Coming Electricity Shortages

Think the U.S. electric grid is immune to blackouts? Think again. The PJM interconnection just reported insufficient supply of new renewable technology to meet demand as the region which consists of 13 eastern states and the District of Columbia expects to retire 21 percent of its existing generating capacity through 2030. That is, fossil-fuel power plants are retiring much faster than renewable sources are being developed, which could lead to energy “ imbalances ” –shortages and blackouts. Further, renewable sources—largely wind and solar power—are unreliable as the sun must shine and the wind must blow, which means they are operating at only a fraction of their capacity.

About 94 percent of the 290 gigawatts power supply vying to connect to PJM’s grid is made up of renewables and storage projects. PJM’s reserve margin, the measure of spare power supplies versus peak demand, is expected to fall from 26 percent this year to 15 percent in 2030, if not lower, according to PJM’s report . The lopsided energy transition is resulting mainly from Biden’s energy policies and state mandates driving fossil fuel generation to shut down as renewable and storage projects are being developed.  These are policy choices by political leaders and utilities are responding as directed.

PJM typically generates a surplus of power because of its current large fossil-fuel generating fleet, which it exports to neighboring grids in the Midwest and Northeast that helped to keep lights on when wind power plunged in the Midwest and central states recently. So, PJM’s reduction in its power reserves as 40,000 megawatts of coal and natural-gas plants retire by 2030 will affect more of the nation than just the 65 million consumers in its immediate territory.

PJM’s “low entry scenario” adds just over 15,000 megawatts of renewable capacity by 2030. Under its high entry scenario, capacity additions through 2030 would be twice that at 30,000 megawatts , but still short of making up for retired capacity, particularly when wind and solar generate at a level half or less of that of the retiring fossil fuel plants. According to the PJM report, the historical rate of completion for renewable projects is approximately 5 percent, in part because of permitting challenges.

For 2022, the renewable industry installed 25.1 gigawatts of capacity across the United States, representing a $35 billion capital investment. Renewable installations in 2022 were down 16 percent from the record set in 2021 and down 12 percent from 2020 installations. The industry faced a number of issues that slowed project development in 2022, including supply chain constraints, lengthy delays connecting projects to the grid, unclear trade restrictions, permitting obstacles and uncertainty over implementation of the lucrative provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act.

While renewable capacity additions are slow, climate policies of all kinds are accelerating fossil fuel retirements. Most projected power-plant retirements are “ policy-driven ” due to the steep costs of complying with Environmental Protection Agency regulations, utility-company ESG (environmental, social and governance) commitments, state renewable mandates, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides huge subsidies for wind, solar and batteries. EPA’s proposed “good neighbor rule” to be finalized soon is expected to force about 10,500 megawatts of fossil-fuel generation to shut down. ESG commitments are forcing coal plants to close. Illinois and New Jersey climate policies could close 8,900 megawatts . The PJM report separates expectations for future “policy-driven” closures from those retirements already planned.  A reader, however, may assume a large percentage of the current planned closures were induced by other government policies previously promulgated.

PJM’s report follows  multiple warnings  from regulators at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) that utilities, lawmakers, and grid operators need to better manage the pace of retirements or else risk  more of the blackouts  seen during recent weather events. According to NERC, retiring those resources without having replacements further threatens grid reliability, particularly as demand is growing. Demand for electric power is increasing due to the growth in data centers and the government’s push for the electrification of vehicles, heating and everything else. This push for increasing electrical demand is stressing the system, as there are not enough electricians to carry out the new government policies.

Other Pending Shortages

According to NERC, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) expects a 1,300-megawatt shortfall this summer, having retired 5,900 megawatts of coal-fired and natural gas capacity since 2021. Based on announced retirements, MISO is projected to close nearly 60 percent of its installed coal capacity by 2030, according to America’s Power  that has been warning utilities and relevant authorities to keep coal capacity online .

While nuclear plants do not produce greenhouse gas emissions, they have also been economically uncompetitive in some markets, leading to retirements. Increasing intermittent supplies of renewable energy which are granted first access to supplying electricity markets has meant that nuclear units are becoming increasingly called upon as backup sources, when they operate most efficiently as baseload, continuous sources. Since 2016, at least seven reactors totaling more than five gigawatts have been retired.

PJM’s report is a warning not only to PJM customers but to U.S. electric consumers as a power shortage at PJM has the potential to cascade across much of the United States. The United States faces a major electric supply challenge as power companies retire coal and natural gas-fired plants for policy and economic reasons, such as reducing maintenance and regulatory compliance costs or cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

In their place, utilities are building renewable units, particularly wind and solar power that cannot replace the reliable capacity retiring as Europe has found out this past winter when there was no wind to keep power flowing. It is clear that the green-energy transition is incompatible with a growing economy and improving living standards, and this becomes even clearer as the percentage of renewables increases in the market. Renewables do not provide reliable power 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and shutting down coal, natural gas and nuclear plants will likely result in future outages.

electricity prices,

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PJM Interconnection,

renewables,

Rolling Blackouts

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Electricity Shortage in Pakistan, Causes, Effects, Solutions

English Essay on Electricity Shortage in Pakistan & Its Solution Pakistan is facing an acute electricity shortage due to a number of factors including low gas supply high demand and insufficient power generation capacity. The country’s energy sector is in a state of crisis with power cuts lasting up to 18 hours a day in some parts of the country. This has led to widespread protests and unrest as well as a significant impact on the economy. The government has been working to address the issue but the situation remains critical.

Pakistan is an electricity-deficient country with an acute energy crisis. The energy sector is in a shambles with widespread power outages and load shedding commonplace. The country’s power plants are unable to meet the rising demand for electricity resulting in a shortfall of around 4,000 megawatts (MW). This has caused immense problems for businesses and households alike as well as for Pakistan’s economy as a whole.

Table of Contents

What Are Some of the Effects of the Electricity Shortage?

Electricity shortages can have a number of effects on the people of Pakistan. For one, they can lead to blackouts, which can disrupt the normal functioning of businesses and homes. They can also cause prices to rise, as manufacturers and businesses have to pay more for electricity. And finally, they can lead to health concerns, as people who are unable to get access to clean energy may be at a greater risk for illnesses such as respiratory problems.

Causes of Electricity Shortage in Pakistan

Electricity shortage in Pakistan is a perennial problem. The country has a large population and growing demand for electricity, but inadequate infrastructure and outdated technology have prevented the country from meeting its energy needs.

Several causes of the electricity shortage in Pakistan can be traced back to years of mismanagement and neglect. The government has failed to invest in necessary infrastructure such as power plants, transmission lines, and storage facilities. This has led to chronic shortages of electricity that have become even more acute in recent years as the country has been struggling with economic recession.

Pakistan has also failed in constructing any new mega dam for electricity production. Wapda is unable to control the line losses. We could not even promote solar and wind energy. Our atomic program is also not emphasizing on electricity production. We are unable to import electricity from Iran and India due to political reasons. Kala Bagh dam has become a political issue. Electricity theft is also a big issue. Dr Samar Mubarak Mand has failed in using the Thar coal for electricity production.

Furthermore, Pakistan’s aging electrical grid is badly in need of renovation. Even if all the necessary upgrades were made, it is estimated that it would take at least 10 years to bring the grid up to modern standards. This means that there will a delay in overcoming the electricity shortage in Pakistan.

What are Citizens’ Reactions to the Electricity Shortage?

The electricity shortage in Pakistan has caused widespread panic and concern among citizens. Many people have been left without power for long periods of time, which has led to widespread frustration and anger. Citizens are worried about the safety of themselves and their families during this time of crisis, and they are also concerned about the economic consequences of the shortage. Many businesses have been forced to close down due to the lack of electricity, which has had a negative impact on the economy as a whole. The government is doing everything it can to address the problem, but it will likely take some time for things to get back to normal.

What are the Government’s Responses to the Electricity Shortage?

The electricity shortage in Pakistan is a problem that has been lingering for years. The government has responded to the electricity shortage by investing in renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, but it has been difficult to implement these solutions due to the lack of infrastructure and funds. Additionally, the government has tried to address the shortages by importing electricity from neighboring countries, but this solution is also not sustainable. The government needs to find a long-term solution to the electricity shortage if it wants to avoid further economic instability and social unrest.

Solutions of Electricity Shortage in Pakistan

Electricity shortage is a serious problem in Pakistan. The country has an electricity demand of around 25000 MW but only 20,000 MW of electricity is generated. This shortfall has led to blackouts and rolling power failures. Various solutions to address the electricity shortage have been proposed by experts and government officials. These include increasing the generation capacity, importing more electricity from other countries, building new power plants or reforming the distribution network.

Suggestions For Overcoming Electricity Shortage in Pakistan

We should also build Kala Bagh dam immediately. There is a need of using Thar coal for electricity production. Hydroelectricity production is the best solution of energy crisis in Pakistan. We need to use water of canals and rivers for generation of electricity. Our atomic scientists should try too use atomic energy for producing more and more electricity. Thar coal must be used for generation of electricity. We also need to minimize the circular debt. Private sector should be encouraged to invest in energy sector. Last but not least we must make a electricity commission for addressing this grave problem.

Conclusion The government has been trying to address the issue through a number of measures such as building new power plants and upgrading existing ones but these have not been enough to solve the problem. The country will need to make more significant changes if it is to overcome its energy crisis.

I am a professional content writer and have experience of 10 years. I also launched first ever English monthly magazine of human rights in Pakistan. Majority of content on this website is written by me.

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What’s at Stake in Pakistan’s Power Crisis

By Noah Berman

February 6, 2023 3:00 pm (EST)

Worsening blackouts are the latest manifestation of Pakistan’s economic distress. A brewing debt crisis could plunge the country into financial chaos.

A wave of darkness engulfed Pakistan on January 24 as its aging power grid strained to meet the country's demand for electricity. The massive outage was the latest in a series of blackouts that have become a chronic symptom of Pakistan’s ailing and climate-vulnerable economy, under duress from devastating natural disasters, a colossal debt load, and the mounting risk of sovereign default. With Islamabad rushing to negotiate a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), experts fear the response will not be enough to avoid a crisis.

What caused the January power outages?

Local officials blamed a surge in voltage at a power station in Sindh Province that cascaded throughout the country, bringing down the grid and leaving more than two hundred million people without power for nearly a day. 

Such blackouts are becoming increasingly common. Analysts say the electricity grid, established prior to Pakistan’s 1947 independence and largely constructed in the 1960s, is suffering from a dangerous lack of maintenance and investment. Pakistan is also running low on the imported fossil fuels that power the grid, with prices skyrocketing since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.

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“Given how rickety and dilapidated the electricity grid is, and the associated infrastructure, it doesn’t take all that much to deliver a catastrophic shock to the system,” says Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Wilson Center.

What’s at stake if the power outages continue?

Pakistan’s electricity woes have added to the country’s precarious financial dilemma, with the blackout inflicting an estimated $70 million loss to the country’s textile industry, its largest export sector by a wide margin. Meanwhile, Islamabad’s total national debt had soared to over $200 billion [PDF] by late 2022, amounting to roughly 90 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), according to state bank statistics. A series of compounding factors have shaken Pakistan’s economy: double-digit inflation has made everyday goods such as food and fuel more expensive, and interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks have resulted in rapid devaluation of Pakistan’s currency, the rupee. Meanwhile, an estimated $40 billion in damage caused by last year’s catastrophic flooding , a budget deficit worsened by large government subsidies, and an unforgiving debt load have brought the country to the precipice of default. 

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Last week’s blackout aggravated this economic adversity. Extended power outages could also affect Pakistan’s agriculture industry and force the country to import more food, a troubling prospect given that the prices of staples such as grain and vegetable oil have soared in the past year. Though Pakistan has been a net importer of food for much of the past three decades , its reliance on food imports surged last summer, when floods destroyed millions of hectares of farmland.

“If these power outages and these broader electricity problems continue over time, you’re going to see major deleterious implications for the economy, both right away and further down the road,” Kugelman says.

What do Pakistan’s struggles mean for other countries?

An economic crisis in Pakistan could have implications for Islamabad’s close relationships with Washington and Beijing. Meanwhile, its growing climate disruptions could ring alarm bells for other vulnerable countries. 

Beijing has invested over $60 billion in the country via its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), through both debt and equity financing; Pakistan has borrowed $30 billion from Chinese lenders. While China has already reduced its lending to Pakistan, analysts say a sustained crisis could make Beijing wary of investing more money in the country. And default in another BRI country—Sri Lanka and Ghana both defaulted in 2022—could resurface other lenders’ concerns about China’s notorious reluctance to take losses on its loans. Pakistan borrowed more from China than Sri Lanka or Ghana did, so another round of contentious debt negotiations could raise questions about Beijing’s leverage over countries that owe it money. A default could also give pause to other countries considering Chinese investment. 

“Chinese state banks have been acting like most commercial creditors—they seem determined to get their money back with interest as quickly as possible,” says CFR’s Brad Setser.

The United States has sought to bolster Pakistan as a stable partner in a region stricken by terrorism and violence, providing tens of billions of dollars in military aid and other assistance over the past two decades. With Pakistan and other climate-vulnerable countries suffering increasingly severe economic consequences from climate change, many experts say what’s needed now is aid tied to climate adaptation. However, some of them argue that the $200 million Washington has provided to Islamabad since summer 2022 barely registers in terms of Pakistan’s need. That paucity of aid could portend lackluster financial support from wealthy nations for climate adaptation policies in other low-income and climate-vulnerable countries.

Will an IMF bailout stave off an economic crisis?

Pakistan hopes to forestall default by unlocking a paused $1.1 billion disbursement from the International Monetary Fund, the world’s controversial financial firefighter . Islamabad has implemented a series of reforms aimed at complying with the lender’s conditions, including hiking fuel prices and instituting a market-based exchange rate for the rupee. The funding is part of a $7 billion bailout that Pakistan and the IMF agreed to in 2019, their fifth such deal in the past two decades.

What would be coming from the IMF would be a drop in the bucket.

IMF conditions have often proved unpopular in Pakistan, and Prime Minister Imran Khan imposed subsidies that derailed the country’s IMF program before he was ousted from office last year. With the rupee falling to an all time low, imports, especially fuel, have become much more expensive, and officials worry about how the country’s forty-six million poor people will survive the spike in prices.

But even Khan has now said the country has “no choice” but to negotiate with the IMF. To stay afloat, Pakistan has drained its foreign reserves: as of early February, the country’s remaining $3.7 billion in central bank reserves were enough for only three weeks of imports. Meanwhile, double-digit inflation has made looming debt payments increasingly out of reach.

Even so, some analysts say that the proposed bailout would be little more than a band-aid solution given the country’s massive debt burden and debilitating underinvestment in electricity and other infrastructure.

“If you’re looking at the scale of the financial needs within the electricity sector, and the broader energy sector, what would be coming from the IMF would be a drop in the bucket in terms of what’s needed more broadly,” Kugelman says.

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Lebanon electricity crisis: ‘Disaster in the making’

After years of stalling reforms, Lebanon is running out of time – and money – to keep the lights on.

Beirut, Lebanon – Lebanon’s electricity sector is again on the verge of total failure, and the government has once more continued to throw money at it, instead of fixing it.

State-run producer Électricité du Liban (EDL) ran out of funds to purchase fuel, so the government issued a letter to the central bank for an advance from its withering reserves.

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A source from the energy ministry told Al Jazeera the advance is worth $200m. The central bank’s subsidies, estimated at more than $15bn, are depleting rapidly, and Lebanon’s expensive and ineffective electricity sector is partly to blame.

In a May 2020 presentation to international donors, Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar said that losses from the electricity sector cost about $1.6bn in public funds every year, though some reports say it can bleed up to $2bn. That is about 3 percent of the country’s entire economy , and experts told Al Jazeera it makes up for almost half of the cash-strapped country’s public debt.

“In the absence of any political solutions, we’re just kicking the can down the road,” Marc Ayoub, Energy Researcher at the American University of Beirut’s Issam Fares Institute, told Al Jazeera. “If we pay $200m, we carry on for two or three more months, then what?  We cannot continue like this.”

Struggling economy

Other stopgap measures have failed or stalled, most notably a fuel-for-medical-services deal with Iraq, where reportedly for security reasons caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab did not fly to the country to secure the deal in late April. On Tuesday, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah suggested the Tehran-backed group is ready to negotiate and purchase fuel from Iran.

Lebanese households for almost three decades put up with daily intermittent power cuts that last for three hours in Beirut, though power cuts elsewhere usually last longer.

Those who can afford it pay private generator suppliers for an extra power boost. And despite the sheer ineffectiveness, the government continued to sustain the system: subsidising fuel and maintaining its bloated workforce, which activists and experts say are part of the political parties’ “clientelistic networks”.

While citizens and policy experts alike have condemned the country’s ineffective electricity sector, Lebanon’s struggling economy has renewed concerns of not being able to keep the lights on. Lebanon is reeling from a crushing economic crisis, with a local currency that has lost around 85 percent of its value and food prices among the highest in the world.

Today, power cuts have become more frequent, even in some of the most affluent parts of the capital. Power plants are shutting down, after running out of fuel to operate. In some cases, the EDL cannot pay for fuel from oil tankers that had already arrived in the country. Most recently, Turkey’s Karpower shut down two floating power barges – which provided a quarter of the country’s electricity – due to payment arrears.

Generator suppliers now say they are struggling to break even because of soaring demand and skyrocketing costs. One distributor, Kassem, told Al Jazeera they are resorting to buying fuel at extraordinary prices on the black market, amid shortages.

“Power cuts in Beirut were three hours but are hitting 12 hours sometimes,” he said anxiously, explaining most generators will overheat after about six hours. “The weather is nice at the moment, but once it gets hotter, demand will increase.”

And, like elsewhere in Lebanon’s struggling markets, Kassem said price hikes are imminent to cover expensive fuel and generator maintenance. “We can’t fill gaps left by the state. To think that we can replace state electricity almost entirely with generators is nonsense.”

Empty promises and vested interests

For more than a decade, Lebanese officials have promised sweeping structural reforms that would secure uninterrupted electricity while stopping the haemorrhaging of public finances. Whether it was bringing in more power plants, diversifying fuel sources for more efficiency, and even investing in solar panels, wind farms and hydroelectric power, the authorities said they had a vision to reduce the deficit and to develop this archaic sector.

Much of these promises are based on a 2010 “ambitious but realistic” policy paper by then-energy minister Gebran Bassil, which he said would reduce losses from the sector to zero by 2014. Bassil also said in his paper this reformation plan could make the sector possibly profitable by 2015.

Bassil’s successors were often from the same political party he now heads, the Free Patriotic Movement, and have since pushed for this plan both in government and to the international community. Its latest reiteration was in April 2019.

Not much of the plan went into effect, apart from bringing in two Turkish floating power barges. Initially a temporary measure, the barges are still docked in Lebanon to this day. Despite worsening economic circumstances and the repeated failure to implement the plan, the Lebanese authorities continue to push for it, with virtually no adjustments.

“The ministry has typically had that sense that they have their policy paper and don’t need to look elsewhere,” independent energy policy consultant Jessica Obeid told Al Jazeera. “This is problematic because at some point the ministry’s key concern became implementing that policy than finding a different way to provide electricity.”

Implementing the policy plan is quite expensive from start until finish; then-Energy Minister Bassil said the government would contribute up to $1.55bn, the private sector $2.32bn, and a total of $2.65bn from the international community.

With the country’s financial wellbeing rapidly deteriorating since then, Lebanon in 2018 had asked the international community to contribute almost $5.6bn for its electricity sector development projects at an international donor conference in Paris. The international community has since urged Lebanon to enact economic reforms and accountability mechanisms to unlock billions of dollars in developmental aid.

That said, a source at the energy ministry told Al Jazeera the current government, only functioning at a caretaker capacity, has its hands tied.

“[The caretaker government] cannot make any financial decisions,” the source said. “The main impediment is [the lack] of a full-fledged government.”

‘Not reinventing the wheel’

Lebanon has been without a government for 10 months, and continuing quarrels between President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-elect Saad Hariri have caused a crippling deadlock. Not even French President Emmanuel Macron, who promised to secure development aid, could break the logjam.

But Obeid and other experts say that the country’s sectarian power-sharing system built on “vested interests”.

Even building power plants or contracting companies for development projects is linked to the country’s political class. One notable case was the proposed power plant in the northern coastal town of Selaata in late 2019. The town is not on the grid, and activists and politicians alike accused the FPM-backed Energy Ministry of proposing the site for its own political motives, given its location in a Christian town.

Though the plant faced major opposition even from within the country’s ruling political parties, it continued to be a heavily promoted component element of Lebanon’s electricity reform proposals as recently as May 2020. By September, even French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly demanded to scrap plans for the controversial power plant.

Électricité du Liban itself is a politicised entity. One year ago, the government appointed its new board of directors through an opaque process based on sectarian quotas.

Marc Ayoub, the energy researcher, said many feasible steps could be taken to resolve this crisis. “We’re not reinventing the wheel here,” he said, explaining that any solution to solving Lebanon’s power problems also lie in a wider economic restructuring. But will the country’s leadership give up its endemic nepotism and political interests?

“Whatever we’re proposing, it’s against the interest of the political elite,” Ayoub added. “We’re telling them to stop benefitting from something they’ve been benefitting from for 20 years.”

At the same time, both officials and experts alike do not expect any investment into Lebanon to restructure its fragile electricity sector without an International Monetary Fund-approved economic rescue plan, though talks have not resumed for almost a year since they broke down in July 2020.

So how long can Lebanon continue to keep the lights while its current setup drains the little that is left of public finances? One year, Obeid said.

“In the current situation where we’re heading, my assumption is that they’re going to keep depleting whatever’s left of depositors money,” she said. “It’s a disaster in the making.”

NZ’s electricity market is a mess. Rolling out rooftop solar would change the game

Associate Professor Energy Economics, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

Professor and Director, Victoria Energy Policy Centre, Victoria University

Visiting Scholar, School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington

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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau provide funding as members of The Conversation NZ.

University of Auckland , Victoria University , and Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington provide funding as members of The Conversation AU.

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Wholesale prices in the New Zealand electricity market have soared over recent weeks, climbing as high as NZ$1,000 per megawatt hour. North Island pulp and paper plants have temporarily closed down because of the spike in costs.

Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones has accused the big energy generators of profiteering, and said the government was investigating ways to force them to cut prices.

On top of that, Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced plans to investigate the feasibility of importing liquid natural gas (LNG) to help increase gas-generated electricity supply and lower prices in the process.

This would entail buying or renting a floating LNG terminal and building out complementary infrastructure such as pipelines. That would take a minimum of a year (more likely two or three years) and would be expensive, with imported gas prices considerably higher.

A much better option, we suggest, would be to prioritise the expansion of rooftop solar throughout New Zealand. This could not only add significantly to the overall electricity supply, but also help bring down prices.

Rooftop solar at scale

The immediate cause of the crisis is low hydro-lake levels, combined with a long-term reduction in the supply of natural gas. Exacerbating this is the market power wielded by the big electricity generator-retailer companies (“gentailers”), which are set up to profit during times of scarcity.

Electricity supplied by gas-fired generation has steadily declined. Since 2015, almost 600 megawatts of gas plant capacity has been decommissioned, with no new additions.

The Electricity Authority’s 2023 study, “ Ensuring an Orderly Thermal Transition ”, found the decline in gas-powered generation will continue. By 2032, this thermal generation is projected to be just 1.4% of total generation, compared to 14% currently.

An updated announcement from the Electricity Authority in June this year says Contact Energy’s largest thermal gas unit will retire this year or next. Furthermore, Genesis Energy has announced plans to use biomass to power some of its gas turbines.

Existing gas generation will increasingly struggle to compete on price with new wind and solar renewables, which are getting cheaper all the time.

Grid-scale renewable electricity supply is expanding gradually. By 2025, there are expected to be 270 megawatts of new geothermal, 786 megawatts of additional solar, and 40 megawatts of new wind power. The combined total would add almost 10% to the country’s yearly electricity production.

To alleviate the energy supply shortfalls primarily attributable to low rainfall, we suggest rapidly expanding cheap solar photovoltaics (PV), specifically rooftop solar for ordinary households. Our soon-to-be-published research suggests such capacity can be expanded quickly and cheaply.

Based on the Australian experience, we estimate modest subsidies for the capital cost of installing solar rooftop systems would add the equivalent of 700 megawatts a year (2% of the total) to the electricity supply. This significant new supply will reduce electricity prices.

NZ’s energy advantage

New Zealand is in the enviable position of already having abundant hydro power capacity. But with increasingly uncertain rainfall due to changing climate patterns, adding widely distributed rooftop solar would mean the country was less vulnerable to lower lake levels.

This would mean the precious water flowing into the hydro lakes could be held back in the dams to meet evening peaks when solar is no longer available.

Other countries – most notably Australia, Italy, Germany, Spain and Portugal – have made much more progress than New Zealand in the expansion of photovoltaics. The European Commission has adopted policies to double rooftop solar over the next four years.

Australia’s energy market operator expects rooftop solar (which already supplies almost three times as much electricity annually as gas generators do) will become the dominant source of electricity supply over the next two decades.

None of those countries have the energy storage advantage New Zealand has. And they are all now having to develop expensive grid-scale battery solutions to store solar power produced in the middle of the day for evening use.

New Zealand’s huge hydro storage advantage means photovoltaics, particularly rooftop systems, can unlock real benefits for customers.

This could mean shifting the management of the legacy hydro assets to provide a high-value product – stored energy – rather than the gentailers simply using hydro generation to maximise profits.

There may even be an argument for revisiting the current market framework and returning those hydro assets to public ownership.

In the meantime, we encourage the energy minister to make the expansion of rooftop solar the top option for expanding the electricity supply and tackling the gentailer power that bedevils the market. He will almost certainly find it quicker, cheaper and more popular than importing gas.

• Renewable energy
• New Zealand
• Electricity prices
• Rooftop solar
• photovoltaics

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Electricity Crisis in Pakistan Essay

This topic is related to the Electricity Crisis in Pakistan Essay and it is one of the major reasons which are hindering the economic growth of Pakistan. The unavailability of power is affecting directly or indirectly every sector of life. Making people feel frustrated as well as helpless. The load-shedding span has amounted to almost 6 hours a day for industries and about 4 hours for domestic consumers. This destructive power shortage has brought the industrialist as well as the local people on the roads for an urge of protest, but despite all such anti-government actions this struggle is in vain as there is no progress in the electricity supply to the consumers. Due to the unavailability of electricity Pakistan’s export is highly affected as industries are unable to meet up to the orders leaving their clients with no other option instead of switching to other vendors in other countries.

Electricity Crisis in Pakistan

This is not only about the export but the national producers are shifting their production plants to nearby countries like Bangladesh and China where electricity supply is convenient and side by side cheap. In the past 4 years, modern cities are experiencing about 8-12 hours of load shedding as compared to the rural areas where load shedding has to accede to almost 12-14 hours of load shedding. This Electricity Crisis in Pakistan is also affecting the gross domestic product of our country as the country’s GDP is decreasing to 2% every passing year indicating a destructive economic breakdown in the near future if this problem is not coped up.

This Electricity Crisis in Pakistan is ultimately becoming the major cause of increasing unemployment in our country. There is no electricity so industries are being forced to fully shut down leaving the labor and employees helpless and without any jobs. It is stated that in the last 3 years, thousands of employees who have lost their job due to this energy crisis have returned to their homes from where they have come in search of jobs. Many of the orders were canceled in industries and were not canceled and never met the prescribed standards and quality. Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) is blamed for this electricity shortage but according to them they are also handcuffed by the gas suppliers as they required 22 million cubic feet of gas for normal production which is reduced to about 115 million cubic meters a day, so when there will be no fuel there will be no electricity produced. So, in conclusion, Pakistan is facing one of the most disparaging and critical Electricity crises in Pakistan and if it is not resolved as a major priority Pakistan’s economy which is still not developed will be in real-time danger.

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US Faces Electricity Shortages Heading Into Summer, as Grid Operators Warn of Limits of Green Energy

Evidence shows america’s power grid is increasingly unreliable and struggling to keep up with energy demand..

With more than 25 years of executive experience in the utility industry, people tend to listen when MISO CEO John Bear talks about energy.

And the message he’s sending about electricity shortages as Americans head into summer is clear.

“I am concerned about it,” Bear told The Wall Street Journal in an article exploring why power-grid operators are worried that electricity supplies may struggle to keep up with rising energy demands.

Bear is not some lone prophet foretelling doom.

From California to Texas to the Midwest, the Journal spoke to grid operators warning that conditions are ripe for outages, as plants pivot to new renewable energy sources.

These concerns are not unfounded. Evidence shows America’s power grid is increasingly unreliable and struggling to keep up with demand, and operators are bracing for rolling blackouts that could be arriving as soon as this year during heat waves and cold snaps.

‘Quitting’ Fossil Fuels?

Politicians and policy wonks often speak of “ quitting ” fossil fuels, as if they are a filthy habit or a narcotic like crack. But the reality is humans could not survive without coal, natural gas, and oil.

Despite their impressive growth, renewable energy sources—solar, wind, hydro and biomass combined— account for just 20 percent of US utility-scale electricity generation.

Fossil fuels, on the other hand, provide 61 percent of utility-scale electricity generation in the country. They heat and cool our homes, run our appliances, and feed the Teslas we drive.

While there is a great deal of excitement around the potential of renewable energy, one cannot simply replace a coal plant with a wind or solar farm and expect things will go just fine. These are intermittent energy sources, for one, but their construction and expansion has also been hit with delays for a variety of reasons, including inflation and supply chain bottlenecks .

“Every market around the world is trying to deal with the same issue,” Brad Jones, interim chief executive of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, told the Journal . “We’re all trying to find ways to utilize as much of our renewable resources as possible…and at the same time make sure that we have enough dispatchable generation to manage reliability.”

The shift from filthy coal to clean energy has not always been smooth.

Last year, for example, Hawaiian officials were stunned to learn the coal plant they had killed had been replaced with a massive battery powered by oil, which one public official described as “ going from cigarettes to crack. ”

Green Energies Have Costs, Too

It’s true that fossil fuels come with tradeoffs. They can be messy and they emit greenhouse gasses. But the idea that “green” energies do not come with similar environmental tradeoffs is simply not true.

That electric car your neighbor just bought probably isn’t as green as he thinks . It takes tens of thousands of pounds of CO2 emissions to produce those fancy Tesla batteries, research shows .

Jason Hickel, an economic anthropologist, argues that renewable energy has the potential to be just as destructive to the environment as fossil fuels. While the phrase “clean energy” might conjure up images of beaming sunshine, rainbows, and gales of wind, the reality is far different.

Writing in Foreign Policy , Hickel noted the transition to renewable energy sources exacts a serious toll on the environment; it requires massive amounts of energy, not to mention the extraction of minerals and metals at great environmental and social costs.

A little-noticed World Bank study examined just the amount of material it would take to get to a “zero emission” economy.

“[The] results are staggering,” Hicekl noted, extrapolating using some basic arithmetic, “34 million metric tons of copper, 40 million tons of lead, 50 million tons of zinc, 162 million tons of aluminum, and no less than 4.8 billion tons of iron.”

It’s easy, of course, not to think about such matters, just like it’s easy to not think about the fact that there’s a good chance the lithium-ion battery powering your EV was made with cobalt mined by a child in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the vast majority of the world’s cobalt is mined.

These are unpleasant realities, but they are realities nevertheless, and they remind us of an important economic adage popularized by economist Thomas Sowell: there are no solutions, there are only trade offs. (In economics, this idea is sometimes expressed as opportunity cost . It’s the idea that you must sacrifice something to obtain a product or service or experience, even if it’s simply your time or attention.)

When it comes to fossil fuels, many Americans tend to ignore their benefits and focus on their costs. When it comes to green energy, however, many of the same people do the opposite; they focus on the benefits and ignore the costs.

To be fair, in some ways it’s easy to forget just how fortunate we are to have fossil fuels. They are provided to us on a daily basis through the invisible miracle of the market, which sees them provided in seemingly infinite amounts, often (though not always ) at relatively little cost.

If John Bear’s concerns prove founded, however, Americans may soon get a rather rude reminder this summer about the importance of fossil fuels.

“As we move forward, we need to know that when you put a solar panel or a wind turbine up, it’s not the same as a thermal resource,” Bear told the Journal .

This is good advice. Let’s hope the right people hear it.

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Lebanon Struggles to Solve Power Supply Crisis Paralyzing the Country

After the last major power plant in Lebanon was forced to shut down, the country has been in a shroud of darkness for over a week. The government is making an effort to secure fuel donations, mainly from Algeria, to provide a partial solution

The last major power plant that still operating in Lebanon has been forced to shut down due to lack of fuel, and for over a week that country has been shrouded in darkness.

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